Vodafone puts its mouth where its money is with SpaceMobile deal

The commercial agreement establishes a framework for Voda to provide space-based cellular broadband connectivity direct to devices throughout its operating footprint, as well as to other operators via its Partner Markets programme.

The deal will see Voda become the proud owner of its first Block 1 Bluebird gateway. It means that when customers find themselves outside terrestrial network coverage they will be able to connect to one of SpaceMobile's Bluebird satellites instead, which will route the data to said gateway, which is plugged into Vodafone's network.

Details have yet to be shared on how Voda plans to take this to market. Presumably the service will be reserved for enterprise customers, emergency comms, and perhaps the odd remote community, rather than for mass market users.

This commercial agreement is little more than a formality given Vodafone's long-running technical and financial support for SpaceMobile.

They have been partners since 2018, and the UK telco is a three-time investor in SpaceMobile. Its most recent contribution was made in January together with AT&T and Google, and provided additional funding of $200 million. Vodafone has also participated in various tests and demos of SpaceMobile's satellite tech.

It would be surprising, bordering on churlish if, after all that, Vodafone didn't agree to use SpaceMobile's network.

As for the network, it's still very early days.

SpaceMobile's first five LEO satellites blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 12 September. These satellites boast what the company claims are the largest-ever commercial communications arrays to be put into low Earth orbit.

Six weeks later, SpaceMobile announced the successful unfolding of these arrays, putting the company on course to offer commercial services across 100% of the US landmass.

This puts it into direct competition with SpaceX's Starlink service. The Elon Musk-owned outfit didn't start life as a direct-to-cell satellite operator, but has since added this particular string to its bow.

By July, it had more than 100 direct-to-cell satellites in orbit, and is expected to soon begin offering commercial services in partnership with T-Mobile US. SpaceMobile counts T-Mobile rivals AT&T and Verizon as partners.

Meanwhile, SpaceMobile also hopes to soon extend the reach and capabilities of its network with its upgraded Block 2 Bluebirds.

These are expected to start launching in early 2025, and when deployed they will support peak throughput of up to 120 Mbps, 10 times greater than the first iteration.

After years of work, SpaceMobile is inching ever closer to offering commercial services, and the LEO space race will become less about who can launch the most satellites and more about who can operate them profitably.